Back to Stoney Cove

It certainly felt like slipping back in time on Saturday morning as we joined the line of cars waiting to get into Stoney Cove at unmentionable o'clock in the morning. Having travelled up on Friday night and arrived at past midnight I have to admit to some level of tiredness. At least we were welcomed at the hotel with a drink from the bar.

The mad dash up was because as always I needed to do some instruction on Open Water before going up. Session four which all went well and it should now be plain sailing to finish the course next week.

We were also staying in a new hotel, nearer to Stoney and somewhat different. It was such a good idea to try somewhere new because I have to admit the place we used to use has pretty much lost its appeal.

Dave and I were the only ones to get up at stupid o'clock because Mel had booked a space. I don't go with paying the extra for a worse parking spot myself and find very little reason to lounge around in bed. Anyway it gave me a chance to catch up on some reading.

Numbers were down in terms of students but between Mel and myself coupled with our desire to provide good instructional diving we still had plenty to do.

On Saturday I started with a deep dive as part of the Advanced course taking Lauren and Andrew gently down the road. Vis was awful to say the least and Stoney was about as crowded as you may expect. All went off well with both students taking considerably longing completing their timed task than on the surface.

Meanwhile Mel was getting on with an Open Water dive and a Peak Performance Buoyancy dive.

The day was over too quickly as it happened but we did manage to get on the new wreck sunk in September on our last dive. The Defiant is fairly easy to locate from the stern of the Stanegarth. On a bearing of 130 she lies almost directly astern but in the vis could be easy to miss. Fortunately we didn't but it was a close call.

The Defiant looks good though she is a little tight for penetration so a certain amount of care is required. It is a shame the vis was so poor because I would have liked to have got some good shots; but at least I could make out the name.

Sunday was much the same. very crowded and poor vis. I had a burning desire to find a Pike to show the students and managed this on the second dive. Unfortunately I did not get the Lauren, Vicky and Dave in a good enough position to see, though we managed to find another in the gloom under the pub.

Our last dive proved to be the most interesting as we once again went for the defiant. This time with somebody else leading we managed a miss. Using my instincts I tried and failed to get us back on track and in the end having only succeeded in finding minis I had to head for the cliff face. Instead of the Defiant we ended up exploring the Wessex and the Commer van.

On the way back we found Bill clinging to the DC-10 with Olly keeping him down. His loss of buoyancy turned out to be due to a dropped weight pocket. Thankfully Olly was on the money as a buddy and Bill managed a perfectly safe ascent.

All in all a good weekend including a catch up with some old friends with reminiscing about old times and acquaintances.

Keep diving......